


The King’s Championship Book One: Fly High!

by GreyStorms



Category: The King’s Championship
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Male Character, Drug Addiction, Gay Male Character, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Romance, Self-Harm, Slow Burn, Sports, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:15:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29489652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyStorms/pseuds/GreyStorms
Summary: Noah attends a new school abroad in hopes to win the ice lacrosse championships, but when he gets stuck with a team full of societal rejects, will he be able to take them to the top or will things come crashing down?
Relationships: Noah Lee/Aaron Quill





	1. A New Home

**Author's Note:**

> Explaining Icecrosse!!!
> 
> Icecrosse is a bastard sport crossover between hockey & lacrosse, i really wanted to create my own sport on ice so i started researching and found a video on youtube which was lacrosse being played in an ice rink (also known as box lacrosse, but with ice) the reason why i created icecrosse instead of just using box lacrosse is because i wanted to create my own rules and player positions.
> 
> How many players?: there are seven players in a game (not including backup players).
> 
> Positions: Starter(Striker), Frontliner, Two Sideliners, Two Backliners, Goalie.
> 
> Starter, (sometimes referred to as Striker): The two starters from each team stand in the middle of the rink while the referee throws the ball, either starter has to whack the ball with their racket across the rink, whoever is taller out of the two usually has the most advantage. The starter also defends the middle of the rink alongside the frontliner.
> 
> Frontliner: The frontliner is usually a bit behind the starter and (depending on the frontliners height) can usually catch the ball with their racket (if it's hit by the other team), the frontliners main job is to defend the middle of the rink from the other team.
> 
> Sideliners: There are two sideliners on each team and both of them are close to the walls of the ice rink, their job is to defend the sidelines, which usually means smashing the other players against the ice rink glass in order to stop them from scoring.
> 
> Backliners: There are two backliners as well on each team, and both of them are in charge of defending the goalkeeper and the back of the rink.
> 
> Goalkeeper/Goalie: The goalkeepers job is to defend the goal, they have to think fast and they have to be able to move fast, defending the goal is their top priority and when they catch the ball, they sometimes throw it back into the rink, or the referee tosses the ball.
> 
> Game Rules: If there are any physical fights, the member/members are out of the game. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands, unless they are the goalie or the referee. There are also red & yellow penalty cards which determine the players offenses, the yellow card being used for minor offenses & the red card being used for serious ones. An opponent cannot touch the goalie's racket. The game is stopped immediately if the ball ends up being out of bounds. The medic of each team is required to check the players conditions (whether they've been taking drugs or not).

~BEFORE YOU READ; TRIGGER WARNING; CONTAINS MENTIONS OF SELF HARM, ETC.~

Rain thudded loudly against the small dark blue car driving down a highway, inside the car sat two people. A woman sitting in the driver's seat was humming gently, side eyeing the young boy next to her. The woman in question was wearing a grey suit with the suit jacket fully opened, revealing her white dress shirt underneath and she wore black flat pumps for driving. In the backseat behind her she had heels which were a lot more fancy looking. The boy next to her was wearing a short sleeved red Nike t-shirt with a long black t-shirt underneath it with long sleeves, he wore pale blue jeans which were turned up by the ends accompanied by black converse sneakers with white socks. He was hugging onto his multi coloured backpack with his suitcase on the floor of the backseat behind him, he turned his head to look out of the car window.

The woman ran her hand through her afro, making conversation. 

"I know moving has taken a toll on you, but you'll be making new friends before you know it!"

They came to a stop at the red traffic light glaring brightly in their faces, already irritated, the boy pulled the cover down to shield his eyes, and the woman looked over at him worriedly. "Please Noah... I don't want a repeat of what happened at your last school." Noah grumbled in response and rolled down the window. His Mother turning back toward the road sighing as she drove as soon as the light turned green, Noah stuck his head out the window slightly, leaning against the car door and letting his black curly hair bounce around and hit his dark skin. Noah was much lighter skinned than his Mother as she was fully African American & he was half Latino and half Black. 

Noah let his eyes wander around the new town of Westview, the buildings were dull and grey but the one building that did catch his eyesight was the ice rink, it wasn't as big as the one in London but it would do. As long as he could play icecrosse that's all that mattered to him. Noah gripped the car door window so tightly he thought he was gonna break it and as soon as the ice rink had left his vision he was back to letting his hair bounce around in the gusts of wet air. After around twenty minutes of driving, the car came to a stop in the dormitory car park. The Mother got out of the car first and went to the boot to retrieve a large sports bag, while she was doing that Noah rolled up the car window and slammed the car door open, making it shake a bit only before slamming it shut again and making it shake even harder. He placed his backpack on the ground and retrieved his suitcase, pulling up the handle and dragging it out of the car before slamming the car door shut again with as much intensity as he did the last time. His Mother looked over at him and frowned before shutting the boot door gently, she walked over to him and placed the bag on the ground, letting Noah put on his backpack before picking up the sports bag and swinging it around his shoulder, barely missing the car.

At first glance Noah thought she was going to scold him for being too rough with the car but instead he was greeted with a warm and gentle tug of embrace, he gave her a loose hug back and when she finally pulled away she started crying. Noah rolled his eyes and sighed deeply. 

"Please don't cry Mum, it's not like you'll never see me again, you're only going to ruin your makeup if you stand there wailing like a child." 

She laughed and wiped away her tears, smudging her makeup in the process. "Don't you worry, I have more makeup in the car." She raised a hand to ruffle his fluffy curly hair, smiling at him like an idiot. "I'll miss you, pumpkin." Pumpkin was a childish nickname that she had given him when he was a young child and she hadn't stopped calling him it even though he was now 18 years of age and going to college. He cringed so hard when she called him that. "Be good, okay? And don't get into trouble and remember to call me when you've settled in!" She shouted as she walked back over to the car, hopping in it. She rolled the window down on Noah's side of the car and said "Please make sure you get along with everyone and most importantly, Don't. Start. Fights. I mean it." Her eyes hardened when she said that before they softened again and she drove off with tears streaming down her face. 

Noah watched her leave the car park until she disappeared down the road and out of his sight, he turned around and stared at the dull looming building in front of him, pulling out a small sheet of scrunched up paper which stated the number of his dorm room he was supposed to reside in '613'. He scrunched the paper back up and stuffed it into his jeans pocket. He walked toward the entrance of the building and asked one of the girls standing at the door which room the floor was on. Noah yanked his almost broken suitcase into the elevator with him, his sports bag slipping off of his shoulder. He quickly pressed the number 8 into the elevator and waited for the door to close before he pulled the strap of his bag back onto his shoulder. 

Trudging down the hallway with his janky suitcase, he stopped at the foot of his room before being greeted with a smack to the face with the door. He stumbled backwards, knocking his suitcase over and clutching his face tightly. The person who undoubtedly bashed his face with the door let out a panicked gasp, rushing over to help him up.

"Jesus dude, I'm so sorry, I for real didn't see you there, you good??"

Noah removed his hands away from his face to glare daggers at the taller boy in front of him, the boy rubbed his neck and laughed nervously before picking up Noah's suitcase. Noah stood up and yanked his suitcase away from the new boy and walked into their room, he died inside when he realised his bed was now a bunk bed. "you're on the bottom bunk." The boy chirped by the doorway, leaning against it and smiling. Noah dropped his sports bag and his backpack on the ground next to the chest of drawers beside the bed and threw his suitcase on the bed and started unpacking angrily. The boy standing in the doorway spoke once more and introduced himself. "My names Jack Summers by the way, and you must be Noah Lee, the transfer student from England!" he stated gleefully, as if it wasn't completely obvious by now that he was the transfer student. Unluckily for Noah the school term had already started a week ago which meant he had missed a whole weeks worth of classes. Noah sighed and began to tune out Jack's incessant rambling. Noah was only halfway through unpacking his things before pulling out a calendar and sticking it to the wall beside his bed, flipping through it and taking out a marker to mark 'Sunday, August 20th, 1992' which was today's date. Jack was eyeing the sports bag laying on the floor untouched and said.

"You wanna play icecrosse with me?"

Noah stopped what he was doing immediately and turned around to face Jack slightly gawping at him. "ahh, I suppose the school didn't mention that they place all of the team members as roommates, haha." He laughed gently and looked at Noah. Suffice to say Noah was quite interested in playing with Jack but only because he was curious in how good of a player he was, after all he was a bit taller than him, he looked to be around at least 6'3 give or take. Noah looked at Jack curiously and said "I take it you're a frontliner then?" Jack nodded proudly and smiled wide. Noah sighed and nodded his head at Jack "alright, I'll play with you. Just let me get my skates first." Noah zipped the remnants of his suitcase up and kneeled down to start unzipping his sports bag, fetching his skates. 

"My skates are already in my car, come on I'll drive us." Jack announced. Once Noah got his skates, Jack locked their dorm and headed to the elevator with Noah trailing behind him. Once they got in Jack's car they headed to the ice rink and walked inside. If Noah thought the ice rink was smaller from the outside when he was on his way to the dorms, he felt like it was even smaller once they were inside. Noah looked around and saw the team's mascot on the wall, the 'Westview Tiger.' Noah grimaced at the sight of the badly painted tiger face on the far back wall, he was going to comment on how absurd it looked before he noticed something below the tiger's ugly face. It was a boy laying on the top bench in the top row of the seats, he had his legs perched up on the bench itself and was wearing his hood over his face and because of that, Noah couldn't see his face properly, the only thing he could make out was that he was wearing a black hoodie and black ripped jeans with his pale knees poking through the open fabric. By the looks of it, it seemed he was sleeping but that couldn't have been the case because there was a woman next to him, talking to him, she looked like she was in her mid twenties and was yelling at him pretty loudly before realising that Jack and Noah were there, when she turned her head to face them a bright and cheery smile beckoned upon her face, she jumped onto her feet and waved before yelling. 

"Hey, you two!" 

Before Noah could even process what was happening, Jack had already sprinted up the steps to meet the screaming woman and hugged her tightly before giving her a kiss. Noah instantly looked away but not before noticing that the boy laying beside her on the bench got up and shoved Jack away harshly while still sitting on the bench, the woman whacked the boy across the head and scolded him for it before motioning to Noah to come and join them. Reluctantly Noah climbed up the steps and reached the top row of benches. The woman stomped up to him also standing with him in the mini stairwell and shook his hand firmly. "Hey there Noah, I'm Coach Ninny!" She took a step backwards to give Noah room to breathe and Noah studied her carefully. 'So, she's my Coach. huh.' he thought to himself. Ninny wore a deep navy blue tracksuit with a white 'W' like shape covering the front half of her tracksuit and her tracksuit bottoms had white strips down the sides of them. Underneath her tracksuit top, she wore a muted orange crop top, which was very odd because the ice rink was very cold. She also wore grey sneakers, and sported a whistle around her neck. Her face was very pleasant to look at, she had light grey eyes in contrast to her exceptionally pale blonde, almost white, hair. 

"And this." She eyed the boy sitting on the bench who was now staring blankly at the ice rink. "This is my younger twin brother, Aaron." Noah noticed Aaron twitch slightly at the mention of his name and turned his head to face Noah. Aaron looked very much like his sister, his hood was now pulled down which revealed his messy white-blonde hair, he had a very jagged look about him. With his hood at his shoulders, Aaron's pierced ears were now more visible. He had multiple piercings on both ears at the top and bottom of them and on his right eyebrow, he had a very visible and vertical scar going through the end of it. His grey eyes locked onto Noah's hazel eyes and Noah shivered slightly, feeling like Aaron was staring into his soul, he soon looked away. 

Coach Ninny all of a sudden slapped Noah on the back and welcomed him to the team with a hilariously scary grin plastering her face. She bid her farewells to the boys and headed out of the rink. Aaron pulled his hood back up and slid back down onto the bench, closing his eyes once more before Jack and Noah headed down the stairs and to the locker room. Jack stood on one of the benches in the locker room and reached up to grab two massive sports bags down from the top of the lockers, he hopped down and placed the two bags onto the bench, a grunt escaping his mouth. "Alright, in these bags we have extra uniforms and rackets, so take out what you need. We won't be getting our new uniforms and racket's until tomorrow when we all play for the first time." Noah nodded silently and they both began opening the bags to take what each of them needed. Noah headed to the back of the locker room and into the bathroom to get changed, when he removed all of his clothes over than his black long sleeved t-shirt, he then started to put on his mismatched short sleeved and loose fitting top, along with the shorts. He then fastened his knee and elbow pads and put on his gloves, wrapping the velcro around his wrists to tighten them, and finally he put on his skates which were very expensive, but since his mum was a lawyer he could afford high end things. 

The racket that was perched up against the sink in front of him was worse for wear, if he were actually playing a real game of icecrosse he would've been extremely pissed at the state of not just the racket, but the uniforms too. He hoped and wished that when they got their new uniforms and rackets that they'd at least be more up to shape than the current mingy clothes and racket he was presented with. Westview is a very poor and low maintenance town, it's basically the slums of a much bigger and better city upon the horizon and since the Westview Tigers are an icecrosse team known only for the fact that they're all basically rejects, it makes this dire situation that Noah's in even worse. Noah gritted his teeth together and peered at himself through the mirror, sliding his headband up to push his longish curly locks out of his face. He grasped the sink tightly, he finally sighed and let go, he picked up his clothes and walked out of the bathroom. Jack smiled at him from the doorway. "We don't have keys for our lockers yet, so you're just gonna have to put your clothes on the bench for now." Noah nodded in response and folded his clothes neatly to put them down on the bench. Before folding his jeans, he stuffed his hand into the back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, placing them back down onto his jeans once he finished folding them. Noah turned to face Jack with his arms crossed over his chest. 

"Aren't we going to address the elephant in the room here?"

Noah said, tilting his head at Jack. "The what?" he responded. "Isn't it illegal for a teacher to date a student?" Jack paused for a second with his eyes going wide, but then he started erupting into laughter. "Listen kid. I'm 20 years old, and Ninny is 23. There's nothing weird between us, it's not like i'm a minor after all. And besides, the only reason why i'm still on this team anyway is because i got put back a year. So don't worry about it." Noah nodded his head in understanding. "But still. If the icecrosse board finds out that you're dating her, won't she be fired?" "Yeah. That's why it's a secret dummy!" Noah sighed as he walked down the hallway with him. "And what if i can't keep said secret?" Jack turned to grin at him once again. "Don't worry, I know you will. After all, everyone on the team knows and they don't have anyone to tell since they're such outcasts." Noah rolled his eyes at Jack as he stepped onto the rink. "It's not much of a secret if you tell everyone you know." Jack laughed gleefully as he dragged his racket across the ice and did spins, pretending he was some sort of morbid figure skater or something. "As i said before. Everyone on this team are outcasts and they have no friends outside of anyone on the team, so it's fine!" Noah glared at Jack, he didn't like being called an outcast because he knew it wasn't true. He had plenty of friends back in London before his Mother basically forced him to move abroad to Canada for her new job at a swanky law firm, which just so happened to be beyond the barrier of this shitty little town called 'Westview". 

Noah gripped his racket and skated towards Jack, holding the ball in one hand and his racket in the other. "So what are we doing here then? We can hardly play icecrosse with only TWO players." Noah retorted as he pounded the stick of his racket into the ice slightly. Jack was now flinging his racket into the air and twirling it around. "'M sorry if you were under the impression that we'd be playing with the rest of the team, haha. It's Sunday and everyone is waaaaay too hungover to play right now. Noah grumbled and threw the ball as hard as he could at Jack. Jack caught it swiftly with one hand that made Noah choke on his own breath slightly. "WOAH! HEY!! Nice throw! but it would be a lot better if you threw it with your racket though. That IS the point of the game yanno!" Without warning Jack threw the ball back with his racket with seemingly no effort at all and it whizzed past Noah's face, making him flinch. Noah looked at Jack in disbelief, while Jack himself was waiting for him to go collect the ball. After a full thirty minutes of tossing the ball back and forth between them and with Noah failing to catch all of them, Noah slid onto the ground and was heaving and panting his heart out. Jack looked over at him and even though he was in the same shape as him, he still managed to get out of the rink and passed over his water bottle to Noah, who took gulp after gulp out of it. Jack clutched his stomach and laughed slightly, between long exasperated breaths. "If you think I'M a good player, wait until you see our resident goalie in action." He said as he motioned towards Aaron who was now sitting upward on the bench, as soon as Jack motioned towards him, he came down the steps with a racket in hand. Noah thought to himself. 'He must've gotten a racket when i wasn't paying attention to him.' 

Aaron found himself a pair of skates and skated onto the rink to join the other two boys, he stopped just in front of Noah, peering down at him with his hood up and his racket over his shoulders, he smirked down at Noah, seemingly giving him a dirty look. "I challenge you to see if you can score a goal, with me as the goalie." Noah stared up at him dumbfoundedly, but slowly nodded at his request, flashing him a smirk back with a hint of confidence in his eyes. "Bring it on." Aaron skated toward the goal and was dead set in the middle of it. The goalposts in icecrosse stretch from one side of the ice rink to the other, giving the player plenty of room to score. However, the goalie's are always the ones who are the fastest and most agile players, so although the goal being big seems unintentionally fair, it's actually more unfair to the players who are trying to score a goal, but it all depends on that one player. All of the goalie's Noah has had to face in the past have been average at best, so it's a breath of fresh air for him to face someone who is actually good at what they do. Jack got up from the ice and threw the ball to Noah. Noah sighed deeply, then inhaled and he threw the ball at the far end of the goal, Aaron who was lightning fast on his feet caught it in less than a second after Noah had threw it. He initially grunted in surprise, but then frowned, tapping his racket against the ice. Aaron laughed hard as he threw the ball up and down into the net of the racket. "Try again. Lee." He said mockingly which made Noah furious as he grinded his teeth together. Aaron threw the ball hard at Noah and it flew past him. If Noah thought Jack was good then he was very much in for a rude awakening, as it was clear that the most powerful member in Westview TIgers was Aaron. After about fifty or more tries of failing on Noah's end, he hunched over and had his hands on his knees, gripping them tightly with a fountain of sweat dripping down his face and throughout his body. Suddenly he heard a large metal clanging noise and when he looked up, there was Aaron. Grinning like a madman. Whacking his long racket against the mental bar of the goal post. Not a single sweat residing on his face. 

Aaron's grey eyes were so lifeless before but as of right now, they were full of life and Noah could see everything that was in them. He could see the absolute joy that Aaron was getting from this sadistic game of his. It was very much apparent now to both Jack and Noah that Aaron was just messing with him and taking pleasure in seeing him in pain. Jack looked worriedly from Noah to Aaron and decided to step in. "Hey now, it's not fun anymore when people are in pain, so can we please stop now?" Jack stated, Noah could see the worry in his eyes and when he was about to tell him to leave it, Aaron chirped up. "Why should I? Clearly Lee's having fun, right? Or else he would've stopped by now. Besides why does it even matter what i do to him. He's looking down his nose at us, you know, so i thought i'd teach him a lesson." This caused Noah to freeze in shock, had he really been that obvious about it? He was convinced by now that his poker face would've served him well, but then it dawned on him. He was in Westview. Basically the slums for a city that's worth far more than anything else, the people on these teams grew up in rough situations which means in some form or another, they're very good liars and can see lies when they are presented with them. Noah gripped the handle of his long racket, turning his fingers white. He looked up at Aaron to find him looking back at Noah with the same kooky grin plastered onto his smug face. "I know types like YOU. Rich kids who think they're better than everyone else. I really don't appreciate you looking down on us just because we live in the bad part of a city and because we're quote on quote "outcasts"." Noah gripped his racket even tighter, he could swear he heard it crack. 

Aaron pulled his hood back up as it had fallen down earlier during their 'game' and went back to balancing his racket over his shoulders, rocking back and forth on his heels. "It really does seem to me like your precious little mummy doesn't even care about you, considering the fact that she left you in the slums to live a good life, probably with a new husband and child too. Or hey! I'll do you one better!, she clearly thinks you're also an outcast and a social reject, that's why you're IN Westview in the first place. What did you do, huh? Burn down a school in England or something? You a junkie? Hm......" Aaron stopped rocking for a moment and pondered. "Or are you perhaps suicidal?" That was it. Any common sense Noah had left flew out the window as soon as Aaron had said that Noah was already charging towards him and he swung his racket, aiming at Aaron's face, but Noah was too slow as he had sweeped Noah's legs with his own racket causing him to fall on his back, when Noah was about to get back up again, Aaron had pointed the end of the racket at his face and Noah stared at the butt of it, then at Aaron himself. Aaron was still grinning madly and Jack finally came to the scene to push the two of them apart. "What the goddamn hell is wrong with you, Aaron?!" He shrugged nonchalantly, swinging the racket back over his shoulders. "I wasn't the one who tried to smash someone's face in with a heavy ass racket, now was i?" "Yeah well, you provoked him!" Jack turned to face Noah and reached out a hand to help him up, but Noah slapped it away and skated from the both of them, heading to the bathroom. 

Noah burst into the locker room's bathroom and gripped the sink once more, looking into the mirror with tears running down his face. He quickly washed his face and changed back into his clothes, when he left the building, he saw Jack leaning against his car and sighed deeply, he didn't even question him as to where he changed his clothes. Noah opened the passenger seat door and climbed inside. The ride back to the dorm was quiet but there was still tension in the air. Once they arrived, Noah slammed the door of the car open and slammed it hard behind him, marching to the dormitory building. Jack shouted after him. "Look, I'm really sorry for what Aaron said, he's a dick. Please don't take it to heart." Noah felt rage build up inside him again, he whizzed around to face Jack, hot on his heels and he started laying into him. "Fuck you. Fuck Aaron. Fuck Westview. FUCK EVERYTHING!!!" Noah gripped his skates in his hands tightly and ran away from Jack as fast as he could, he felt like he had been running for miles and when his brain finally told him he needed oxygen, he collapsed against a bus shelter. Breathing hard and shaking, he managed to pull himself up and walked inside. He wrapped his arms around his skates and began sobbing again. 'Yes.' He thought to himself. 'I am an outcast. I am nobody.' He rolled up his right sleeve to see deep self harm scars splattered across them, he shivered and pulled his sleeve back down, he hugged his skates closely to his chest as he cried himself to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3


	2. A Dream

Noah woke up in the cold and disgusting bus shelter, he shivered and stretched his limbs, letting his skates clatter to the ground. He tilts his head up and out of the corner of his eye, he notices there is a small clock on his left hand side. Coughing and clumsily getting to his feet, realising he's 20 minutes late for his first class of the day, he scoops down and picks his skates up and rushes back to the dorms. Once he got to his room he dug through his jean pocket to find a single key that was given to him by Jack while they were still in the locker room. Inside, he quickly threw his things aside and got showered and dressed for the day, heading into the main building of the college he was greeted by an angry sneer once he entered the classroom. When the teacher had finally finished scolding him, he took out his notepad and pen and started doodling. Throughout the remainder of the day he was feeling numb and lost, just wanting the day to be over as soon as it began. He wandered aimlessly back to his dorm room when the school day was over and opened the door to find a startled Jack waiting for him, sitting on his floor beside his bed. Jack jumped up and immediately started over towards Noah, he mentally blocked out all of the rampant questions Jack had lined up for him once he eventually came back to the dorm room. Noah sighed, placing his colourful backpack down onto his bed and turned to look at Jack with gritted teeth. 

"I'm. Fine."

Jack ran his pale hand through his natural red hair and looked at Noah with worry floating atop his dark green eyes. "Well, if you're sure." He replied, his tone sounding off for some reason. "I wouldn't have told anyone you were missing anyway, I kinda figured you'd return eventually. Ninny said we have to be in the track and field area in 10 for some exercise, she also has an announcement for us or something." Jack said as he waved the conversation off with his hand. So that was the reason why he was dressed so casually and looked like he was ready to go for a run. Jack paused for a second to let his overly bright smile return to his face before saying. "If you don't have anything to wear, you can always borrow something of mine, just make sure you wash it when you give it back to me." Noah shook his head at the offer, pulling up his half full suitcase and digging through it, he yanked out a plain grey short sleeved t-shirt and a pair of tracksuit bottoms. He threw his suitcase back onto the ground and changed in the bathroom. Once he came out, he quickly grabbed his lighter and box of cigarettes as he hurried into the hallway where he heard loud voices and Jack's laughter pounding in his ears. He swung the door outwards accidentally hitting Jack in the backs of his ankles, he backed away from the door so he could turn around to look at Noah with that stupid golden grin plastered across his face again. Noah looked around to see three other boys to his right. The one closest to him was a smallish Asian boy with glasses, the one next to him was a much taller boy who was just a smidge shorter than Jack with dark blonde hair and blue eyes, he was definitely the jock type. And the one next to him was a little shorter than him, he also had blue eyes and black hair with an undercut. 

The small boy next to him reached out his hand and grasped onto Noah's, shaking it firmly. "It's nice to meet you, my name is Daniel and these are my friends. Max and Damien." He said as he pointed toward the blonde boy, then the dark haired boy. Max gave a cocky grin and saluted to Noah, while Damien was just scowling at him with embarrassment. Noah nodded at all of them before he saw Aaron trailing behind them with his hood up, hiding his face. When Aaron walked past he ignored Noah's quite obvious glare at him. Max laughed heartily and stretched over to pat Noah on the back. "Hey. Don't worry about him, he's just some edgy loser, not worth our time." Noah shrugged the beefy boy off of him and proceeded to walk towards the stairwell that led onto the track and field area, with the others following him, chatting noisily behind him.

When he and the others arrived, Noah noticed Coach Ninny talking to the rest of the players and they all turned to look at Noah and the others. She clapped her hands together and shouted over for them to join the rest of the team. Aaron (who was wearing the same clothes as yesterday), sat on the bench away from the group and pulled his hood firmly over his face to keep it hidden even further. Noah looked at him confusedly but decided to ignore it and pay attention to what Ninny was saying. "Unfortunately everyone, today I have some bad news." She began. "Your new uniforms and rackets haven't arrived yet, so today's gonna be another day of doing laps and drills around the track, sorry." Everyone simultaneously groaned and muttered complaints under their breath but Ninny clapped again to draw their attention towards her. "However. They will be arriving some time during this week, so in the meantime I want you all to welcome Noah to our team and make him feel at home, sound easy enough? Good." And with another clap of her hands, she dismissed them so she could go over to talk to Aaron, as soon as she did that all of the other team members scuttled around Noah like he was a prey and they were the predators and they all took turns to introduce themselves. The first person who introduced himself to Noah was a boy the exact same height as him, he had short brown hair and dark brown eyes. "The name's Samuel Jenkins. I assume you've heard of me." He stared directly into Noah's eyes with a hint of malice in them. Over the course of the day he'd heard his fellow classmates rant and rave about this so called elitist striker named 'Samuel Jenkins' it made Noah sort of puzzled because if Samuel was so great then why would he be on a team full of rejects. Noah wanted to ask Samuel what he was doing here but was soon interrupted by a girl clinging to Samuel, the shrill sound of her voice took him by surprise as she laughed and kissed Samuel's cheek. Her dyed blonde hair was stretched back into a long high ponytail and she was wearing a matching pink Gucci tracksuit with white Gucci sneakers to go along with it and also a matching headband to complete her 'rich white girl' look. She snapped her head to look at Noah with a fake smile plastered over her caked face.  
"Jessica Hanford. Backliner." She giggled, wrapping her arms around Samuel even tighter. "I just LOVE your outfit." She stated, clearly lying through those pearl whites of hers. 'Fake teeth, most likely.' Noah thought. A shorter female stood beside Jessica, pushing Jessica's overflowing blonde hair to stop it hitting the poor girl's face. She pulled out a few blonde hairs from her mouth and grimaced, flicking them onto the ground and groaning in frustration. "My name is Toni Ambers. I'm also a backliner." She said hurriedly, fixing her boyish short brown hair with a hairbrush. Noah looked over to the right of her and saw a guy wearing a thin black hairband to keep his shoulder length light brown hair at bay, he had one hand on his hip and another clutching his water bottle, taking long and heavy swigs from it. He closed it then put it down onto the damp grass and burped loudly. Noah got grossed out by this and gave the guy a glare. The guy held up two fingers in a peace sign and said. "Sup, George Anderson here. frontliner." He let out a loud cheer before picking up his bottle again and taking another swig out of it. His accent was very surfer-dude-like and it was apparent to him that George was at least a little tipsy. Daniel peered up at Noah for a moment before fixing his glasses to stay atop the bridge of his nose. "I'm a goalie.." He said unconfidently as Max laughed heartily again. "YEAH, and a shit one at that. I'm a sideliner by the way! and Damien next to me is my partner and crime for the job." Max stated with a goofy grin across his face as he pulled Damien by his shoulders into a tight embrace while giving Noah a thumbs up and a wink along with it, Damien tried to shove Max off and the two began to squabble between themselves, as that happened Noah tripped backwards and landed on his back, while everyone was laughing at him, two identical twins came into his view. Both of them had blonde hair and green eyes, the male one pointed to his female twin and said "This is Lucy Adler." Lucy did the same and pointed towards her brother. "And this is Luke Adler." Then they both said in unison. "We're both sideliners." They both flexed and pulled silly poses, hoping to impress Noah, but it made him roll his eyes in response which made them giggle.

A small hand reached out and Noah grabbed it as it pulled him up. He looked at the girl who helped him. She was petite and had tanned skin, she was Asian just like Daniel, her long flowing brown hair reached to her butt and she wore a scrunchie on her wrist, freckles adorned her face and she had light and gentle hazel eyes which were filled to the brim with happiness. "Are you alright?" She said, her tone soft and delicate. Noah blushed madly and nodded in response. Beside her was a girl with pure red rage implanted into her face, the right side of her hair was dyed white and the left side was dyed black, she had thick black eyeliner coating her eyelids and a silver nose ring along with glossy chapstick smothered over her lips. She instantly raised an arm to put some distance between Noah and the other girl. "Don't even fucking think about it." She hissed at him. "Number one. She's gay, and Number two. She's dating ME." The girl beside her patted her arm gently. "It's fine, Luna. He didn't know, you don't have to be so over protective, dummy." Luna put her arm down, turning away and scowling slightly. The girl turned back to face Noah and introduced herself and her girlfriend. "I'm Rachel Louis and this is Luna White. We're both backliners." She smiled sweetly at him as the others surrounding him giggled and murmured amongst themselves. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Noah noticed Ninny talking harshly to Aaron and she ended up pulling down his hood to reveal himself sporting a black eye, he whipped his head to the side so his sister couldn't see his messed up face. Noah's eyes widened as they interlocked with Aaron's. Aaron gave him a foul look and pulled his hood back over his head, marching back inside the dormitory building. Ninny shouted after him but to no avail. After the other team members finished introducing themselves, they scattered themselves and went off either to do some icecrosse drills or to run laps around the track. Samuel pulled Noah off with him to practice some drills. The team now was split into two, Samuel's side with Max, Damien, Jessica, Daniel, George and Noah. And Jack's side who were running laps, Toni, Lucy, Luke, Luna and Rachel. Samuel threw Noah a racket. "I really wanna practice drills with you, I wanna see if you're as good as me or not." Jessica giggled at Samuel and he returned the smile, they were both flirting with each other and it made Noah want to barf. Jessica, Max and Damien were all throwing a ball with their racket's lazily while George was sitting on the bench beside them drinking even more of his 'special' juice and pretending to practice whenever Coach Ninny looked his way. It irritated Noah to no end how careless he was being but that didn't distract him for long once he noticed that Daniel had put on a hilariously oversized helmet as he stood in the practice goal which was nowhere near as big as the ones on the rink. The reason why they were practicing outside today is because the ice rink was already in use. 

"Let's take practice shots and whoever loses is buying us drinks this Saturday when we go out." The fellow members of their team whooped in excitement. Samuel smirked at Noah and readied his racket with the ball already in the net. Samuel fired the ball so fast that Noah missed it as he blinked and watched the ball land in the goal's net. His friends all around him cheered when he scored, and he turned back to face Noah with his shit eating grin still very much present on his face. Noah gulped as he watched Samuel step backwards to give Noah his space and Daniel threw the ball back at Noah as he caught it in his net. He inhaled deeply through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, Noah didn't like being watched by a lot of people, he wasn't used to it and it put him a bit on edge, especially considering that the people staring at him from behind were so loud and obnoxious, it made him feel even more inferior. When he opened his eyes, he shot the ball from the racket and it landed straight into the goal. Max used his fingers to whistle, while Damien clapped his hands. Jessica was looking at Noah with that fake smile of hers, and Samuel patted Noah on the back with encouragement. He then leaned his chin against the net of his racket and spoke. "You know if we had a better goalie like Aaron, then we'd have a much better time at playing." he side eyed Noah while saying that and he went stiff as a board. "Why do you say that?" Noah turned around to look at him curiously. Samuel cocked his head back and tilted it in Daniel's direction. "Because. I'd rather play with an angry, angsty midget than play with a useless midget who has zero skills and can't catch any balls to save his life." Even though Daniel was wearing a helmet, it was obvious that he felt particularly stung by his harsh words by the way his body jerked in reaction to what Samuel said. "But alas." He began. "Aaron's too busy sulking because his sister is angry with him." Noah nodded in response and watched Samuel as he scooped up the ball with his racket and readied himself to fire it again. "What's his deal anyway?" Noah said with a hint of irritation escaping into his voice. Samuel side eyed him before firing the ball into the goal with ease. "Who knows. There's a rumour that he picks fights with people he hates and has no self control over his emotions, he also apparently sleeps around a lot. So if I were you, I'd stay well away from him especially if you have any self decency. " Noah nodded in silent response and ground his stick into the grass slightly. He knew that what Samuel was saying was true but he has his own suspicions about him. Samuel ended up winning the play off against Noah and cheered with his friends. He pointed at Noah and said "You're buying us drinks, Saturday." George raised his water bottle. "I'll drink to that." He said as he took another swig from it, making Noah grimace at the sight of him. Practice was over soon enough and everyone cleared the field of their possessions, Noah had stayed behind to help Daniel clear away the goal and other items, while Ninny sat on the bench and watched them. As Daniel went back inside the dorm, Noah paused by the bench and sat down beside Ninny.  
"What's wrong with Aaron?" Noah asked Ninny quietly. She looked down at her whistle which was in the palm of her hand and fingered it gently. "I don't know." She replied. She paused for a moment and looked up at the warm sunset that was present. "I wish I did. But he just won't talk to me about his problems, he's so angry all the time and get's into fights with the other members constantly. I've tried to take him to doctors, therapists even, but It's no use." She gripped the whistle in her hand as tight as she could and sighed. "The reason I made this team was because I wanted to help everyone, I fought tooth and nail to make this team happen. Everyone thought I was delusional but I'm determined to make this team be the best it can be and I know I can take this team to The King's Championship." Noah blinked at her slowly while she stared at him, her confidence unmatched. The King's Championship is a team's one way ticket to secure them a place in nationals, but only the best teams in the country are handpicked by officials and can compete in the event. The King's championship is an event where officials pick certain teams all over the country to compete against each other and again, go to nationals. Noah scratched behind his neck nervously and backed away slightly from Ninny's over enthusiastic nature. "I know it seems absolutely impossible for a team with a bad rep such as ours to even THINK about getting picked to participate, but I just think it's a nice dream to have and I'd do anything to make it a reality." Ninny gave Noah a gentle smile, which made his heart ache for some reason. He nodded his head. "I hope your dream comes true." He stated through gritted teeth. Ninny gave him a wide grin and patted his head. Noah bid farewell to her and retreated back into the dorm's stairwell. Instead of taking the elevator he walked all the way up to the top floor, he didn't know why but somehow his feet had told him to keep walking until he arrived there, so he did and by that point he was exhausted but noticed that the door to the roof was open a smidge. Curiosity killed the cat as Noah opened the door even wider, he stepped out onto the roof to look at the gorgeous view he was presented with, his eyes widened in surprise, he began to turn around fully to take in the view but was greeted with Aaron instead. Atop the door's roof was Aaron just sitting there, dangling one leg over the edge of the boxed roof he was on top of. His left arm was perched behind him to keep him upright while his left hand was holding a rolled up weed joint to his lips, he sucked in a breath of the drug and exhaled, blowing out a visible cloud of smoke. He peered down at Noah with his piercing grey eyes and sneered at him. Noah looked back at him with his hazel eyes and said. "What happened to your eye?" Aaron glared at him and scoffed. Noah sighed gently, before continuing. "Coach is really worried about you, you know." Aaron snorted at him and looked away this time, not giving a care in the world. "Did she make you come up here and tell me that?" Noah shook his head in response. "I had no idea this was your hiding place, If I knew, I wouldn't have come." "I saw you two talking on the bench, what did she tell you?" Aaron was still looking away from him as those words left his mouth. "She was either telling you about me or about that stupid fucking dream of hers." He took a long draw from his joint, flicking the ash from it and breathing out another cloud of smoke. "Both. Actually. She was complaining about you being difficult but it was mostly about her dream." Aaron chuckled as Noah said that, he flicked away his joint and hopped down onto the roof in front of Noah, he walked over to him and was just an inch away from his face before he said. "And what? You wanna be my knight in shining armour? You wanna make my sisters dream come true so you're gonna force me to play nicely with the team? Not happening." Noah closed the distance between their faces, stating. "I don't wanna do that, as nice as your sisters dream sounds, it's completely impossible to achieve." Aaron studied Noah's face for a moment to see if he was lying, then backed away. Noah also backed off before stating. "I just wanna know why your relationship's so strained with her, that's all." As soon as he said this, Aaron had already turned his back to him and was heading for the stairwell before he stopped midway, turning around halfway to face him. "Let's just say I hold a grudge against her." He said before giving him a shit eating grin and disappearing downstairs. Noah sighed as he turned around and walked towards the edge of the roof before plopping down and pulling out a cigarette and his lighter, lighting it, he inhaled deeply and blew out a cloud of smoke, watching the sun as it disappeared from the reddened sky.


	3. Loss

A loud ringing noise could be heard above Noah, he groaned as he stirred himself awake and banged on the wooden board above him with Jack throwing the alarm clock down onto the floor beside him, breaking it. Jack climbed down the bunk bed stairs and stretched his arms out, bending down and scooping up the broken clock.   
"Need to buy a new one now." He chuckled and placed it down on the coffee table that stood in the centre of the room, between the TV and the bunk bed. Noah got up and shoved the ladder for the bed out of the way. He picked up the clock to see the time, '6 AM' it said. Noah groaned as Jack walked back into the room with two warm mugs of coffee, he handed a mug over to him which had a unicorn face on it. Noah stared at it bizarrely before Jack spoke up. "We have practice today at the rink, pretty sure Ninny's got our new uniforms and rackets too." Noah nodded as he took a sip of his coffee, hissing as he burnt his tongue, the bitter taste making his face scrunch up in disgust. He looked over to Jack who was gulping down his coffee in seconds. He went back through to the communal kitchen and came back seconds later with a post-it note and a pen. "Here. Put your name on that mug so others don't accidentally drink out of it." Noah took the pen and post-it note out of his hand and placed them down onto the coffee table, while Jack was getting changed, Noah finished his coffee and wrote his name on the post-it note, sticking the note carefully onto the mug with his thumbs. He got up and walked across the hallway to the kitchen which was big and had a table with chairs, he went over to the sink and washed his mug out.

The door slammed open, which startled him so much that he almost dropped his mug. He turned around mildly annoyed to see who it was and he was greeted with a small, stroppy teenager who had white-blonde hair. Instead of wearing his usually black hoodie, Aaron was wearing a light grey one. He gave Noah a brief glance before walking over to the fridge, pulling out an apple and leaning against the closed fridge, munching on it. From this side he could see Aaron's prominent black eye since his hood was down, he wanted to ask him again for the second time, who gave him the black eye but instead blurted out with. "Where is everyone, aren't we supposed to be meeting Coach at the rink soon?" Aaron took a chunk out of his apple, side eyeing Noah while simultaneously looking at the clock on the wall across from him. "Yeah." He managed to get out. "They're either all getting ready lazily, or they're still sleeping." He swallows the hunk of apple down his throat apple threw the rest of it over Noah's head and straight into the bin beside him. Noah glared at him. "Really?" Aaron smirked and shrugged at him as he left the kitchen. Noah scowled and shoved his mug back into the cupboard with the rest of the team's.

Walking back into his dorm, he noticed Jack in the bathroom with the door wide open, combing through his wavy red hair with gel, it stank really badly. Noah pinched his nose with his thumb and his fore finger before slamming the bathroom door into Jack's face. He could hear his erupting laughter as he opened the door back up again, perching his body weight against the door frame. Noah sat back down on his bed and opened up his suitcase, picking out clothes to wear for the day. He liked keeping his clothes in his suitcase, it worked better for him that way. Jack cocked his head to the side. "Why do you always wear short sleeved t-shirts with longer shirts underneath?" Noah froze, searching for an answer. "I just like it that way." Jack nodded in response and picked up his backpack which lay beside the bathroom door, throwing it over his shoulders. "You should hurry up and get ready, I'll wait in the car for you." "Thanks." Noah responded as Jack left the room and Noah went to the bathroom to get changed. He walked out of the bathroom and marked his calendar, 'Saturday 27th August 1992', then he grabbed his sports bag and went down to car park, hopping into Jack's car.

On their way to the rink, Noah drummed his fingers on the car window as he looked out. "What happened to Aaron's eye?" When Noah asked Jack that, he almost skidded off the road. "I don't know, sorry. You'll have to ask around probably." He replied with a bright smile on his face. Noah rolled his eyes as he sank deeper into the car seat. When they arrived at the rink, Ninny was already inside waiting for them. Some of the Tigers looked raring to go while some others looked like they were dead inside. They all sort of huddled onto the benches as quick as they could and Noah was shoved against Aaron gently, welcoming a push from him, signalling to get away from him as Aaron scooted sideways to create some distance between them.   
Ninny stood in front of them while holding up the new uniforms, everyone stared in awe at them. Both the shirt and the shorts were black and reflective with dark blood red strips across the shoulders and down the sleeves, the shorts were the same and their school logo was on the bottom corner of them. In the middle of the shirt was a bold and detailed drawing of a tiger, which looked way better and different from the shitty one painted on the wall. Ninny handed everyone their uniforms which were concealed in plastic bags, she also handed them their rackets. The rackets were big and sturdy, and they were all black with the numbers on their jersey's down at the bottom with a red strip at the bottom as well. The rackets for the goalkeepers were white instead of black and the nets on them were much bigger and wider looking than on the regular ones. Ninny also gave them all black skates and waved them off to get changed. Everyone excitedly ran off to the locker rooms to get ready. When Jack was coming down the stairwell, Noah tugged at his jumper. Jack stopped in his tracks to face Noah with a confused look on his stupid face. "When we're changing in the locker room can you please not let anyone into the bathroom while I'm in there?" Noah looked at his feet while stating it quietly. Jack's confused look soon turned into that goofy grin he always has on. "Sure thing! I'll always keep watch so don't worry, 'kay?" He slapped his shoulder in a comforting way. "Thanks." Noah replied as he gave him a small smile. They both headed into the locker room together and were greeted with half naked boys, Noah shielded his eyes while Jack went over to his locker and started to undress, Noah slipped by the other boys unnoticed and headed into the bathroom, locking the door behind him and starting to get undressed. 

Noah was the last person to reach the rink, he saw the others already on it, doing warmups, he placed his water bottle down onto the bench and held his racket between his legs, pulling his headband over his head to keep his hair in place. He pulled his shin pads over his knees and pulled other ones to cover his elbows, the black undershirt concealing the pads to look like he wasn't wearing any, finally tying his laces and grabbing his racket he went onto the ice. Noah closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his mind but greeted with Max's beefy body crushing him into a tight embrace, he yelled out making Noah's ears ring. "Boy are you heavy!" He heartily laughed, Noah hit him twice before he finally let him down. Ninny banged against the glass wall of the rink to draw the team's attention her before she motioned to them to come over. "Alright you brats, today you're gonna be facing off with each other and I'm gonna split you into two teams, got it?" She said with a menacing tone her voice, once everyone nodded she continued. "The right hand team, MY right not yours. The players will be; Jenkins (Samuel), Quill (Aaron), Anderson (George), Lucy Adler, Wayne (Damien), White (Luna), and Hanford (Jessica). On the left hand team, the players will be; Lee (Noah), Lang (Daniel), Summers (Jack), Luke Adler, Smith (Max), Louis (Rachel), and Ambers (Toni). Line up!!" They lined up into their positions, out of the corner of his eye, Noah saw Aaron put in his mouth guard then covered his head and face with his helmet which had the team's tiger on it's head. With everyone settled into their positions, Ninny came out onto the rink with a white ball, she motioned Samuel and Noah to get closer to her while she positioned their rackets into a cross shape with the nets facing outwards. "Now." She yelled out so the rest of the players could hear. "As soon as one team scores five points, they win, got that?" Everyone nodded in agreement. Ninny skated back a bit, placing the whistle between her lips, she threw the ball into the air the same time she blew the whistle, signalling the start of the game. 

Samuel caught the ball almost immediately and rushed past Noah and his other teammates, he aimed his racket down slow and shot into their goal, barely missing Daniel's head in the process. Ninny blew her whistle. "One point goes to Samuel's team!" The smile of appreciation brought onto her face, made Noah groan in frustration while tightening his grip around his racket. Samuel's team cheered for him, while he looked straight over to Noah with a smirk upon his face. They all got into position again and repeated the process. Once the whistle blew, Noah was able to snag the ball and he raced down the side of the rink to avoid getting caught by George but then ended up being body slammed by Damien into the wall, his shoulder scraped along the wall and he winced slightly, backing of Damien's death grip, he side stepped and skated even faster towards the goal, Jack was almost right beside him with his other teammates close behind him, Noah gritted his teeth together as he didn't know whether to pass the ball to Jack or to shoot right for the goal, Jack was shouting at him to pass the ball but Noah's fight or flight instincts took over and he aimed to fire the ball into the goal, he shook his racket and the ball flew fast into the air and Aaron caught it midway. Noah paused briefly to look at him, trying to make out what his face underneath the helmet looked like, he was probably smirking which made Noah boil with anger running hot through his veins, he banged his racket out of frustration into the ice and skated back towards the middle of the rink along with everyone else getting back into position. Samuel laughed at Noah, but he just ignored it and waited for Ninny to arrive. Aaron threw the ball into her hands and she almost dropped it, he saw Aaron's shoulders shake up and down which implied that he was laughing at her clumsiness. Skating back to the two of them, she positioned their rackets equally against one another and threw the ball into the air along with blowing her whistle. Samuel caught the ball but accidentally shot it into Jack's racket, he passed Samuel by and thanked him for the ball sarcastically as he charged down the rink with ferocity. He dodged the other players with ease and shot into the goal, it missed Aaron's racket by and inch and slammed into the goal. Noah panted heavily as sweat dripped from his hair onto the ice beneath him, he looked up at the scores written on the rink's glass wall with black marker, '3-4'. Samuel's team only needed one more score until they won. Noah gripped his racket firmly as he held the ball in it and the other members of Samuel's team charging towards him, he cradled the ball in his net inwards and spun around from one member to the other, he skated down the rink to create some distance between them and came face to face with Aaron who was guarding the goal with all his might, as he was paying way too much attention on Aaron, Noah didn't notice that the ball had slipped out of his net and onto the rink, the moment he realised it was gone, he saw Samuel charging straight for it. Noah skated as fast as he could towards the ball but it was too late, by the time he got to where Samuel was he had already scooped it up into his net and threw it over the heads of the other players and straight into the goal. 

Ninny blew her whistle to conclude today's game and marked a five through the four she had scribbled onto the wall. Noah collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath as he tuned out his teammates screams. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a hand reaching out to him, Noah grabbed onto it tightly and as the person pulled him up, he came face to face with Aaron, he flinched slightly. Aaron smirked at him which caused Noah's face to turn beet red, he skated away and Noah followed. Aaron walked straight past Ninny as she tried to speak to him, her shoulder shrunk down when he walked away from her. Noah stepped off the rink and sighed which caused Ninny to turn around with a bright smile on her face, she patted him on the back gently. "You were great out there!" Noah nodded in response with a small smile on his face before he scurried off to the locker room.


	4. Home Truths

~BEFORE YOU READ; TRIGGER WARNING; CONTAINS HOMOPHOBIA, HOMOPHOBIC SLURS, DRINKING.~

Noah peeped his head inside the locker room and heard water echoing throughout the room, he stepped inside and headed towards the bathroom and waited until everyone was out. He walked out of the bathroom and Jack was sitting on one of the benches, grinning at him. "You really shy aren't you?" He chuckled softly. "Don't worry, I'm not here to judge. I'll wait for you by my car." He left the locker room to let Noah shower. Once he came out and dressed himself, he and Jack went back to the dorm's where they were greeted with thudding music coming from the end of the hallway, before Noah could go into his room, Daniel walked out of Samuel's room and headed down the hallway to meet with Noah. "Hey." Daniel started. "What's up?" Noah replied. "You're buying drinks tonight and I have to escort you to make sure you pick the right ones." Noah rolled his eyes as he forgot about it and sighed. "How am I supposed to buy drinks anyway, I'm underaged." "It's fine, just tell the store owner that you're friends with Samuel and it'll work." Noah raised an eyebrow at Daniel and sighed before opening the door to his room and throwing his gear inside. "I'll see you tomorrow Jack." Jack smiled in response and retreated to his room for the night.   
Daniel and Noah travelled down the street a bit and came across a corner shop with a faulty neon sign above it reading 'David's' they both walked into the shop, with the door bell ringing loudly to alert David, the shop owner who was dozing off. Daniel pointed to the alcohol section of the store and Noah followed him. Daniel picked up packets of crisps and sweets while Noah picked up two bottles of vodka and a pack of cherry soda cans to use as mixers, when they arrived at the counter, David was standing up and he was staring them down. He was a tall bald headed man with a long scruffy beard and an anchor tattooed upon his shoulder. Daniel nudged Noah in the side with his elbow signalling him to tell David that they were friends with Samuel. Noah scowled at Daniel before turning to David and placing the bottles and cans on the counter. He looked straight into David's eyes and stated "We are friends of Samuel's." He gave a silent nod which made Daniel clumsily put everything else onto the counter as well. 

Once they got back to the dorms, Daniel opened the door to Samuel's room and he greeted them with a smile. Noah noticed that George was passed out on the couch, snoring away like it was no one's business, while Jessica, Toni, Max and Damien were all chatting and laughing amongst themselves. Samuel made his way over to the two boys and took everything out of their hands and laid it all on the floor. He went to sit on the floor and said "Wanna play a game of never have I ever?" Everyone whooped in agreement and sat down with them. They now were all sitting in a circle, waiting for Noah to join them. "Come on now, we don't bite, I promise" Samuel said, which earned him a laugh from Jessica who was sitting beside Toni on one side with Max and Damien sitting on the other side. Daniel took his place beside Damien and looked up at Noah, motioning for him to sit beside him. 

Noah sat beside Daniel and crossed his legs, looking at Samuel who was now sitting across from him. "And now we begin." He passed around shot glasses to everyone and unscrewed one bottle of vodka, pouring it into everyone's glass. "I'll go first." He stated, clearing his throat before speaking. "Never have I ever, gone skinny dipping?" Jessica and Toni looked at each other for a moment before downing their shots, Max whooped and wolf whistled, earning a glare from Toni and a giggle from Jessica. "Explain, girls." Samuel said, looking at them with a cheeky smile. Jessica giggled even harder and slapped a hand onto Toni's thigh. "When we were on holiday two years ago in Majorca. Toni has a really nice body you know!" She giggled even harder as Toni blushed heavily while pushing Jessica off of her gently. Jessica sat up straight and poured her and Toni another shot before saying. "Never have I ever, kissed someone in this room?" Jessica made love heart eyes at Samuel before she downed her shot. Samuel also downed his, while Damien and Max downed theirs. Jessica gawped at them in surprise. "You HAVE to tell me who you two kissed!" Damien scoffed and rolled his eyes at her. "We don't HAVE to tell YOU anything." Jessica pouted as she buried her head into Toni's shoulder, earning her a pat on the head from Toni, during the game Daniel had slid his shot over to Max who downed it and put it to the side, the others complained at him, claiming that he was a party pooper but Daniel just replied saying that he hated alcohol. It was Toni's turn now and she pondered a bit before saying. "Never have I ever, fallen in love with someone at fist sight?" Everyone bar Daniel and Samuel downed their shot, Noah coughed slightly as the alcohol burned its way down his throat. Toni patted Noah's back gently. "You good?" "Yep, just went down the wrong hole." Toni smiled at Noah mischievously. "Go on then, who did you fall in love with at first sight?" "Not anyone in this room, that's for sure." Everyone broke out in laughter as he said that. "Your turn now, Noah." Noah looked down at his shot, pausing and then looking up at everyone before answering. "Never have I ever, lied to someone in this room." He said it in almost a whisper, everyone stared at him, even Daniel was looking at him as he was gulping down snacks. Toni was the first person to down her shot, when no one else did, it sort of made the atmosphere awkward but Noah took a shot anyway. Max drummed his fingers against his thigh lightly. "Anyway! moving on." He turned to Damien and gave him a big wide grin. "Your turn, sunshine." Damien rolled his eyes and shoved his head away. "Never have I ever, lied to someone about loving them." Jessica downed her shot in a heartbeat. "All the time! But not to you, honeybear." She said as she turned around to face Samuel, he smiled back at her. Max looked down nervously as he slowly downed the shot. "Oh my god! Max!! You're such a bad boy! Although I suppose it doesn't matter much, you're always fooling around with girls and breaking their hearts." Jessica said through a fit of giggles erupting from her throat.   
Through Max's eyes Noah could see a hint of sadness floating atop them, but ignored it. Max soon returned to his cheery self. "ALRIGHT!! Now it's my turn! Never have I ever, spied on the girls in the locker room?" As soon as Max was about the take a shot, Toni got up and threw her drink over him. "WOAH WOAH, HEY! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" Max peered up at her with anger filling his blue eyes. Toni scoffed at him. "Your attitude towards women is so fucking gross, it makes me physically sick." Max stood up now. towering over her. "Not my fault that you're a fuckin' dyke." Toni slapped him across the face with tears rolling down her face. "FUCK YOU!" She angrily stormed out of the room, with Jessica chasing after her, she glared daggers at Max as she walked by him.


	5. Self Hatred

~BEFORE YOU READ; TRIGGER WARNING; CONTAINS HOMOPHOBIA, HOMOPHOBIC SLURS, INTERNALISED HOMOPHOBIA, DRINKING.~

Samuel coughed awkwardly as Damien was trying to calm Max down. Noah fiddled with his empty shot glass and poured another one out for himself, a loud noise came from the bathroom and what stood before them was Aaron. He peered down at him with his hands stuffed firmly into his hoodies pocket. Samuel tapped his shot glass to draw his attention over to him and motioned him to sit where he was sitting, once Samuel stood off to the side and Aaron sat down, he grabbed a clean shot glass and poured out the vodka into it. "Truth or dare, Aaron." "Truth." He replied. Samuel looked down at him, his presence feeling heavy and unwanted. "Have you ever slept with any dudes?" As soon as Samuel said this, it caught both Max's and Damien's attention which caused them both to shut up and look at Aaron with curiosity. Aaron smirked to himself while downing the shot then looking at Noah straight into his Hazel eyes. "Aye. I have." Aaron continued and looked up at Samuel. "Truth or Dare, Samuel." He smirked down at him with a glint of evilness in his eyes. "Dare." Aaron closed his eyes before standing up, stuffing his hands back into his pockets. He turned to look at Samuel in the eyes, a maddening grin spreading from one ear to the other. "I dare you to take a long walk off of a short bridge." As soon as he said that, he walked out of the room. Noah's face was as flushed as anything. "I need to go now." He stated before running out of the room after Aaron. Samuel groaned and bent down to pick up the bottle of vodka, downing it. He wipes his lips clean with the back of his hand and turned to Damien and Max. "And this is why I fucking hate faggots, just know that if you end up being one. He said, pointing at both of them simultaneously. "You ain't my friend anymore." Samuel walked out of his room and slammed the door behind him, going off to god knows where. Damien frowned and turned his head towards Max who was burying his face into his knees. "I still don't know why you're even friends with him, he's a total ass." Max snapped his head towards Damien with tears streaming down his face. "We've been friends since childhood, I can't just leave him." Damien sighs and stands up, looking down at Max. "The longer you're friends with him, the more toxic you become and I just can't handle it anymore. Max grabbed his hand. Damien grumbled while pulling himself away from his grip. I'm not.... I'm not asking you to tell him about us, I'm just asking you to become a better person but for the meantime, we're over. I'm sorry, Max." Damien left and returned to his own room, while Max stayed where he was, sobbing.


	6. Hope

~BEFORE YOU READ; TRIGGER WARNING; CONTAINS SEXUAL ASSAULT/RAPE.~

Toni sat in the stairwell, crying her eyes out as Jessica sat on the step next to her. “Hey...” She said calmly to let Toni know she was there, she put her arm around her as she held her in a tight embrace. Toni just lay in her arms, not moving a muscle. Jessica tapped her foot against the concrete stair. “I can’t believe Max would say that, he’s such an ass. Even if you were gay, it’s none of his damn business.” Toni separated herself from her and looked up at Jessica. Toni’s eyes were red and puffy and she had a few snot trails leaking from her nose, Jessica giggled at the sight and handed her a tissue. While she blew her nose, she continued. “You know it’s not just Max. It’s Damien and Samuel too.” she turned her head away from Jessica and faced the wall beside her. “You can’t blame Samuel for everything that Damien and Max do, Toni.” She replied, with a hint of stern in her voice. This caused Toni to stand up, scrunching up the piece of tissue that’s in her hand and turning to face Jessica while taking a step down from her. “Whether you like to hear it or not, Samuel’s responsible for 90% of their actions, we’ve all been friends for a year and in that amount of time so many things have changed for the worse.” 

Jessica looked at her with shock working it’s way onto her face. “You’re just jealous.” She said quietly but loud enough for her to hear. Toni took another step backwards with a look of judgement on her face. “What? Why on earth would I be jealous??” Jessica stood up now, looming over her. “I’ve seen the way you look at me and Sammy! You always have this look of disgust on your face.” Toni rolled her eyes as she looked back at Jessica. “Only because I find him revolting, he’s a horrible person and so are his friends. You should stay away from them.” Jessica looked at her with wild rage filling her eyes. “If you’re gonna be such a bitch about it, then our friendship is over.” Toni gritted her teeth. “Fine.” Jessica turned her back on her and ran back upstairs where faint sobs could be heard. 

As Toni was beginning to walk down stairs her phone rang, she rolled her eyes as she wormed her hand into her jean’s pocket, plucking out her phone. Flipping it open she responded to the caller. “The hell do you want?” “Meet me in the gym. Now.” Samuel replied before hanging up. Toni sighed and shut her phone off before trailing down the dorms stairs and onto the track and field area, making her way into the gym, she unlocked the door and went inside, greeted with Samuel who had his back to her. 

“Why did you ask to meet here, what do you want?” Samuel turned around, smiling at her gently. “I need a favour.” Toni crossed her arms over her chest as her face turned pale. “No way. I already did it once, I’m not doing it again.” Samuel cocked his head to the side like an innocent puppy, who accidentally peed on the floor and didn’t know why they were getting scolded for it. “And why not?” Toni’s fingers gripped her arms, making them turn white as she replied. “What if Jess found out? She’d hate me even more...” Samuel rolled his eyes, his patience wearing thin. “You think I care about your dumb friendship?” He snapped back at her before opening his phone up to show pictures to her, he clicked through them with a wicked smile dancing upon his face as his eyes darkened. “Don’t forget who you belong to.” Toni gasped as she stumbled back slightly, her face turning even paler. Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw Samuel scroll through picture after picture of her, naked, and having sex with him. 

“But that’s not...you...” Were the only words she managed to mutter out, bile crept up slowly into the pit of her throat as she dug her nails deep into her arm, drawing blood. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t look away from his phone. “That’s not what?” Toni’s ears were ringing as she heard him speak, his voice going through her. Samuel chuckled lightly before continuing. “You know no one would believe you if you said anything. Everyone would just think you’re a whore, that you were absolutely gagging for it.” Toni shook gently. Her eyes worn in and tired looking. No matter how much she wanted to protest, she couldn’t. She wanted to run away but he was too fast and would’ve caught up with her immediately, she slowly released her fingers from her arms and started removing her clothes silently. Samuel grinned and slammed down a gym mat in front of him. Motioning for her to lay on it and she did.

Jessica returned to her dorm room, slamming the door behind her, making the photos on the wall jiggle slightly. She sat on her bed and untied her long pony tail. She grabbed a brush and started yanking it through her blonde hair while looking out of the window. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a picture frame sitting atop Toni’s drawer cabinet. Jessica put the brush down and walked over to it, picking it up as her eyes softened gently, her eyes scanned over it and she smiled. The picture contained all three of them standing together and laughing, Jessica on the left side, Samuel in the middle and Toni on the right. Jessica gripped the frame as teardrops fell onto it. 

Samuel pulled his shirt over his head while Toni was laying on the mat, as still as ever. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek before leaving the gymnasium, Toni sobbed quietly as she gripped the edge of the mat, burying her head into it.


	7. Love

Noah opened the roof door to find Aaron sitting on the ledge of the roof, there was a smaller bottle of vodka beside him along with a cigarette pack and a lighter, Noah slowly closed the door behind him and made his way over, sitting down beside him and dangling his legs over the edge of the building. "Why'd you follow me up here?" Aaron questioned him, taking a long drag out of his joint, flicking the ash off it as the air carried it away. Noah pondered for a moment, he didn't know why he followed Aaron up to the roof, his feet just ran away with him and as soon as he knew where he was he wasn't mad that he ended up there. Noah lightly shrugged. "Am I being intrusive?" Aaron blew out a large cloud of smoke into the air and scoffed. "Obviously." Noah chuckled softly as Aaron continued on. "For someone who really can't tolerate being in a place like this, or around people like me, you sure are clingy." Noah kicked his legs outward before replying. "Only because you're the most interesting thing this shitty town has to offer, if it weren't for you this place would be boring. And if you weren't on my icecrosse team I'd get bored of it too eventually."  
Aaron cocked an eyebrow at Noah. "Huh. And why's that?" He responded as he turned to him, his curiosity piqued. Noah turned his head to face him too. "I guess it's because your stubbornness inspires me to better myself." Aaron blinked at him. "Even though I insulted you?" Noah nodded his head. "Why?" He asked before taking another long drag out of his joint and flinging it onto the ground below. "I have a really bad habit of forgiving people too easily, and it's already been a week since your tantrum, so I decided to let it go, I hoped we could have a fresh start. If I really have to try fitting in with the outcasts then I may as well start with the biggest outcast on the team, right?" Noah said as he smirked and grabbed the vodka bottle, unscrewing it and downing it. Aaron scoffed at him and smiled gently, causing Noah to choke on the vodka. He'd never seen Aaron smile genuinely before, he either smirked at you or laughed at your pain, there was no in between. Noah coughed slightly and started wheezing. "Jesus christ." Aaron muttered out as he patted Noah on the back. 

"Take it easy, will you." He sighed and yanked the vodka out of Noah's hand, taking a shot as well, he grimaced and shook his head, cringing. Noah laughed at him while pulling out a cigarette from the pack and lighting it. "Oh yeah don't mind me, just help yourself to my stuff why don't you." Aaron stated before rolling his eyes at Noah. In response, Noah blew out smoke into Aaron's face which made him cough. "Fuck you, dude." He smiled at him while fiddling around with the cigarette in his hand. The starry sky that sat in front of him had Noah in awe.  
He lay down to take the view all in before Aaron chirped up. "If you lay like that, It'll hurt your head, dumbass." He shrugged in response and stared up at the stars. Aaron sighed before pulling off his hoodie, throwing it at him. Noah let out a muffled gasp as he pulled it away from his face. "What the hell?" "Pillow." Aaron replied without turning to face him. Noah rolled his eyes and folded the hoodie before laying his head on it to look back up at the sky. They both sat there in silence for what seemed like an eternity before Aaron finally spoke up. "I'm sorry, by the way. I was having a bad day with my sister and other stuff, so I took my anger out on you." Noah peered at him before he continued on. "I still don't trust you though, and this right here." He motioned around him. "Doesn't mean anything, got it?" Noah smirked to himself as he took a drag before exhaling. "Don't worry, I'll win your trust one way or another!" He said as his laugh echoed throughout the night.

**Author's Note:**

> <3


End file.
